Vimpel Communications (VIP) adds 12 cents to $12.52 and a 10000-contract block of VIP Dec 12 puts trades at 75 cents when the market was 70 to 90 cents. Looks opening and tied to 440K shares at $12.30. The contract is 4.3 percent OTM with a delta of -.40. Shares of the telcomm giant touched new 52-week lows of $11.75 on 7/18, but are up 6.6 percent since that time. Earnings expected late-Aug, early-Sep.

*Scanning all single-stocks subject to 2500 contracts minimum call or put volume

Big Prints in the SPYders (SPY), which are down $1.27 to $128.06 and put volume is outpacing call volume by a ratio of two-to-one (1.95 million puts/950K calls). The top trades are part of a four-way spread, in which the strategist sold SPY Aug 121 – 131 put spread to buy Aug 115 – 125 put spread, collecting $1.89, 30000X. Open interest is sufficient in all four legs, but this is possibly a roll of a bearish spread down in strikes after a six-day 4.9 percent slide in the spiders. Shares are not far from session lows and now testing an 200-day exponential moving average.

*Scanning all single-stocks subject to 2500 contracts minimum call or put volume

Talbot’s (TLB) adds 43 cents to $3.90 and options volume is 5X the average daily, being driven by upside call buyers in the Jan 5s. 2,495 traded against 1,070 in open interest. The action includes a multi-exchange sweep of 1057 at 33 cents when the market was 32 to 33 cents. 80 percent of the volume has been at the ask. Aug 4 and Nov 5 calls on TLB are seeing interest as well. Shares are up and calls are active today after Sycamore Partners disclosed a 9.3 percent stake in the retailer.

Annaly Capital (NLY) adds 48 cents to $17.27 and implied volatility is easing today. Shares have rebounded sharply from the lows of $14.05 seen Friday morning when fears about US debt default sent the mortgage REIT plummeting in volatile trading (see 7/29 color on HTS and NLY). Options in Annaly remain heavily traded again today. 13K calls and 16K puts so far, which is 3X typical volume for the first hour of trading. The top trade is a 2,055-contract block of Aug 18 calls at the 14-cent asking price. Aug 16 puts are the most actives, with three blocks totaling 5,000 traded mid-market at 12 cents just before 10:00 on AMEX. It might be a liquidating trade, as open interest is 10,475 and implied volatility in NLY is down 28 percent to 27 now that a debt deal has been struck.